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Penn State's junior running back isn't the type to laugh and smile and chit-chat after a football game. It's just his style. He has just left the field, after all. He did all of his talking out there This time, things are different. This time, he's too happy not to point out the obvious.

These are the moments after Penn State rolled past Kent State, 34-0, last Saturday mostly because the Golden Flashes simply couldn't handle Zwinak and a Nittany Lions running game that is fast establishing itself as one of the most diverse and dominant in the Big Ten.

This was a game in which Zwinak rumbled his way to a 4.3 yards per carry and three touchdowns, and he could make a strong argument that he wasn't the star of the backfield. That his fast, shifty backup, Bill Belton, ran for 90 yards and set up just about every one of his touchdown runs with a mad dash inside the 5-yard line. That Belton's backup, Akeel Lynch, came into the game in the second half and still managed to run for a whopping 123 yards, on nearly 9 yards per carry.

"To have multiple running backs is a big part of the game," Zwinak said. "Everybody has fresh legs. Everybody does something a little bit different. The coach can pick and choose who he wants to put into the game."

Head coach Bill O'Brien has a reputation for being a pass-happy play-caller, and so much focus has been fixed on the down-by-down performance of true freshman quarterback Christian Hackenberg, the fact that Penn State ranks 51st in the nation in rushing offense, at 197 yards per game, has become little more than a sidebar.

It hardly seems like less than a month ago, fans and the press were wondering whether it was somehow fundamentally flawed. Because that lofty 197 yards per game average on the ground includes a 57-yard performance against Syracuse that was Penn State's worst effort against a nonconference opponent in the rushing department in a decade.

But after that sluggish start, Penn State running backs have hardly been slowed, never mind stopped. Part of the reason for that is that defenses have no reasonable expectation which of the three, with their differing styles, will run best against them.

"I think it brings more of a 'We're coming at you every down' attitude," guard Miles Dieffenbach said. "It's harder on the defense. They're tired, We're coming at them. And I think it has been working well."

Against Eastern Michigan, Penn State rushed for 251 yards and five touchdowns. Zwinak had two of them. So did Belton who, along with Lynch, rushed for 108 yards.

"That's what we want to do on a week to week basis, Lynch said. "We can. Because all of us have the ability to break one. All of us have the ability to lead the team in rushing each week."

In the loss to Central Florida, Zwinak had 128 of Penn State's 193 yards.

He scored three touchdowns, and had it not been for a fourth quarter fumble - the only one this season by a Penn State back in 165 carries, incidentally - he might have been able to carry Penn State to a comeback.

Then came the Kent State destruction, with Belton and Lynch leading the way and Zwinak finishing the job around the goal line. The Nittany Lions ran for 287 yards, their highest total in four years.

Since all three backs began to see significant action in their last three games, Penn State has averaged 243.6 rushing yards per game, a number that makes it competitive with the top 25 rushing teams in the nation.

"I believe in using a lot of backs. I really do," O'Brien said. "I know some teams want to use one back, and sometimes, we try to go with the hot back. But we also think all three of these guys are really good football players. They're practicing well, and it's a competitive spot. We think all three deserve to play."

The Penn State offense, historically, has had a simple philosophy: Find a running back who can move the ball, and keep feeding it to him.

The results are similar this season, but the method to building those numbers isn't.

O'Brien doesn't seem intent on naming any of his backs a starter, even going so far as to list all three as co-starters going into the Central Florida game.

For Zwinak, the key to the Penn State running game isn't something fans will see on gamedays. It's what builds in practice, a friendly but intense competition between three backs who know the other two or so good, one slip-up can put any of them on the bench for a weekend.

"Every day, we have to come out and work hard," Zwinak said. "It definitely is everybody striving to push each other. We help coach each other. I ask Bill so many questions on running pass routes, on open field running. We all exchange ideas as a group, because that's all we want to see is this running back group get better."

Contact the writer: dcollins@timesshamrock.com

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